Honey Bacon Recipe Question

[zzerru]

In Rytek Kutas' book, in the recipe for honey cured bacon, it says 4tbs of instacure for one slab (p.304). Does this seems excessive? I recently cured a 7 lbs belly and I reduced it to 4 ts. It seemed to cure fine....thoughts on the amounts?

 

[richtee]

Hmmm does seem high. You must have an older edition. Mine lists this on 317. I don't use Instacure... what is the normal rate/lb?

 

[zzerru]

hmmm, I got the 3rd edition. Not sure off the top of my head how many editions there are. The directions on the the Insta Cure 1 says 1 level tsp per 5 lbs of ground meat. No instructions for non-ground meat.

I tried to email the website, but no response. Just don't want to over cure, bad business there.

 

[richtee]

I have the third too. Weird.

Anyway, I'd go with the 1 Tsp./5. With TQ the rates are the same. Inly the time changes, as with ground, it's mixed thru the meat, with solid, it has to permeate the hunk. And the 7 days per inch is the same I believe.

Yes, over cure is a bad thing. At your expected time, take a slice outta the center of the slab and give it a quick fry and check for the characteristic "pink" of the cure all the way thru.

 

[zzerru]

Thanks Richtee, it always helps to get a 2nd opinion on these things.

 

[desertlites]

I have the revised edition,page 301 honey cured bacon calls for 2 oz. prague #1 per slab.

 

[zzerru]

hmm so based on the math, its should be 10 tsp's or 3 tbs, 1 tsp to get 2 oz. Man, that just still seems like a lot. Thanks for the input DL (wish the editions jived more!) :^)

 

[pgeobc]

Well, what this ignores is that the rates for ground meat and for slab meat are very different. Ground meat aborbs essentially 100% of the cure; slab meat only absorbs a fraction.

Go with Kutas' recommended rate; it is based on what the finished product will have in it (<156ppm).

 

[walking dude]

yeah.........third edition is the newest one.........is there a revised third edition out there?
cause i am asking for it for fathers day........